Janice
by Atomic Rex
Summary: Who is Janice? Why was she taken from him? Will these questions be answered when "The Void" actually comes out? Most likely. That still doesn't stop me from writing about her! Haha! Rated T for highly disturbing implications of murder and arson. It's Mr. SmallxJanice. Kinda. You'll have to read it to understand.
1. The Meeting

**NOTE: **This was written before "The Void" actually came out. Enjoy this story for what it is.

**Janice.**

* * *

Mr. Small breathed slowly and rhythmically. He was sitting on his desk with his legs crossed and his hands clasped together - humming a steady bit of a calming melody to himself. It was at this time every day that Mr. Small had his daily meditation session. Besides being able to guide all the children with his vast wisdom, it was what he looked forward to the most when coming to work each and every weekday.

He breathed in deeply, savoring the earthy aroma of the inscense that was burning in his office. But before he could exhale, a knock at the door broke his concentration, startling him and causing him to choke on the air. He coughed loudly and got off of his desk to flip the light switch on.

"One minute, please! I'll be right with you."

He stuffed his meditation rug and all his assorted new age paraphanelia into a plastic box under his desk. Normally, he would have put them in a drawer of his filing cabinet, but ever since he was accidentally trapped in one, he had grown to have a severe phobia of both enclosed spaces _and _filing cabinets themselves. Because of this, the cabinets in his room were always locked up tight, and he usually had to call in for assistance whenever he needed something out of them.

Mr. Small walked over and opened the door, almost tripping over his own two feet in the process. Before him stood a short blue cat with a huge head.

"Oh no..." he muttered, "I mean, hey Gumball! How's my favourite blue cat doing today?"

"Pretty good, I guess." He didn't sound too sure. His head was hanging down and he refused to look at Mr. Small.

"Doesn't sound too good to me. Wanna talk for a while?"

"Well, can't think of any other reason I'd be coming to see you. Which is a shame really, because you're _such _a great guy."

"No need to disrespect your elders, Gumball. Did you eat lunch? You sound pretty grumpy. Maybe you should go eat and then come see me."

"Actually, the smell of that awful inscense has kind of made me lose my appetite anyway."

"I'm sorry then. Normally I wouldn't even be burning anything at this time. No one ever comes to see me during lunch. It's kind of my private time."

"Are you gonna let me in or what, puffy?"

Mr. Small gritted his teeth, "Fine. Go take a seat."

Gumball did as he was told and plopped himself down onto a child sized seat opposite of Mr. Small's desk. Usually, in order to make the students more comfortable, he sat on his desk and talked to them, but at the moment, he seemed to prefer sitting behind his desk.

"So," he began quietly, "What brings you here today, Gumball Watterson?"

"Well, this might be a little hard to explain to you, honestly. Don't think you've really had any experience with women."

Mr. Small pointed to the door, "Door's right over there Gumball. If you came to see me at this time then you _must _have something important to talk about."

Gumball sighed whinily, "Ugh, fine. See, there's this girl I really like. Her name is Penny. Penny Fitzgerald."

"Oh, you like the little antlered peanut girl. Yeah, she's pretty cool. Makes good grades, she's super friendly, so physically fit. Probably the most talented cheerleader we have. That's not really saying a lot though, is it?" He said with a cheeky grin, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

Gumball smiled back and shrugged. It was an inside joke among the student body that the cheerleaders were terrible, and by all accounts, they were. Always falling on Carmen's spines or accidentally tearing one of Teri's limbs off. At Elmore Junior High, being a cheerleader was a very dangerous job.

"Yeah, I guess it's not really. I still cheer them all on whenever me and Darwin watch them practice, though. But, just between you and me, it's usually only for Penny."

"How sweet of you. So, how long have you had a crush on Penny?"

"Probably ever since the fifth grade. I had always thought she was one of the nicer girls I've met, but it was that one day that she stood up for me in gym class that made me really start to like her."

"What happened?"

"Well, I don't want to get too into detail, but this kid was picking on me really bad for not being able to do a single chin up. That's almost physically impossible for me, if you haven't noticed."

"I'm sure you could do it if you just tried harder, Gumball."

"My arms wouldn't stop falling off, Mr. Small."

"Oh. Okay, nevermind, finish the story."

"So anyway, Penny comes over and starts calling the kid a wimp for picking on someone much smaller and weaker than him. Normally I would have taken offense to being called weak, but no one had ever stood up for me before like that except for my mom."

"Hm, your mother?"

"Yeah, she's scary when it comes to people messing with me. Once I thought Tina Rex was bullying me, and my stupid sister just _had _to say that I was being bullied. I mean, it's not that I don't appreciate her honesty, but I think my mom might be a little crazy."

"I remember that very well... Was that the day you and Anais came into my office?"

"Yeah, and when we mentioned who was bullying us you like, wet yourself or something."

"I did not! My colour drained, it's a defense mechanism for my species that enables us to escape the grasp of predators that cannot see black and white!"

Gumball raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Seriously?"

Mr. Small hung his head in shame. "No, that was a lie. But don't you go telling a bunch of lies, now. That was wrong of me to say."

"Actually that was pretty transparent."

"Fair enough. Maybe we should move back to the topic at hand."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"Do you know if Penny likes you back, Gumball?"

"She does. I'm almost 100% sure of it. But the little voice in the back of my head that tells me to trust my gut and not my heart just speaks louder and keeps telling me that she's way out of my league."

"Well, why not give it a shot? Try asking her out to a party or something."

"I could never do that! It took me so much courage just to come in and talk to someone about this."

"I see. Well, I applaud your bravery Gumball. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?"

"Yeah, there is one thing."

"What's on your mind, Gumball?"

"How did you talk to girls in high school?"

"Me?" This conversation was beginning to feel rather awkward. His love life had not really started until after graduating high school. Sure, he had had crushes and "girlfriends," but nothing like what Gumball was going through. Well, nothing except...

"Therapy session over, good day!" Mr. Small rudely pushed Gumball out the door as quickly as possible, slamming the door shut behind him and locking it as well. Gumball was shaked and confused. What had he done? Was there some invisible boundary between student and teacher that he had just crossed?

"Hey, dude! Everything go alright with Mr. Small?"

The familiar sound of squeaky sneakers alerted him to Darwin's presence. Gumball wasn't really sure what to tell his best friend/brother.

"Uh, it wasn't too bad I suppose. Thought he was going to go into one of his psychotic episodes much earlier like he always does. For most of the session he was pretty mellow, though."

Darwin gave Gumball a look. "Everyone in the lunchroom heard his door slam. They're saying you got into a fight with him. What did you do?"

"What?! A fight? Did they forget who I was talking to? That guy is too wimpy to harm even a fly."

"Don't ignore the question, man. What did you ask him?"

"All I asked was if he had any experience with girls! That's literally all I did, and he totally freaked out like he always does."

Everyone in the general vicinity gasped and dropped what they were holding. All eyes were on Gumball, who could do nothing but stare in confusion.

"What?" he shrugged, "That's what happened. How is that so bad?"

"No one in this school asks Mr. Small about his love life. Don't you know the story?" Tobias said.

"Uh, I guess not."

"Jeez... I thought you were dumb, but not this dumb. Come on, I'll tell you all I know about Janice if you follow me."

"Janice?"

"Shhh! You're right outside his door, man. Don't make him go off again."

"Alright, alright. Lead the way."

Tobias started off towards the end of the eastern hallway, and soon they both ended up on the third floor of the school. No one at Elmore Junior High liked it up here. The floors were creaky and the carpets were stained. The whole place just deserved a complete renovation.

"Hey, aren't we supposed to be in class right now, Tobias? Why are we on the third floor?"

"Shhh! I'll deal with Simian when the time comes. I'm doing this because you're my bro, man," he said, holding out a tiny orange fist for Gumball to bump.

"Why are you shushing me? No one's up here except us."

"Shhhhhh! You can never be too careful up here. Some kids say even some of the desks and pencils are Simian's allies, always listening... Now bump it!"

Gumball sighed and unenthusiastically fistbumped Tobias's hand.

"Great! Now grab this rope and pull as hard as you can."

"Wait, there's _another _level?"

"Nah, this is the door to the roof of the school. Just pull it."

"Okay... here goes," Gumball yanked the rope hard and pulled with all his might. After a bit of straining, the door finally swung open and revealed a passageway.

"Climb up on this piano, I'll grab your hand and hoist you up onto the roof."

Carefully as possible, Gumball climbed on top of the piano and let Tobias lift him up. The fresh winter air hit him like a truck. The temperature in the third floor of the building was always really cold as since no one ever went up there, there was no real point in running a heater.

"Tobias, please tell me why we had to get up on top of the roof for you to tell me this stupid story."

Tobias shut the door to the third floor and grinned. "Dramatic tension, my friend."

"What?! I, I just, what?! Ugh, you know what? Fine, I'll buy it. Just let me hear the stupid story so we can get this over with."

"Very well. But I warn you Gumball, the story of Janice has been passed down through generations and has scarred countless children. Including myself."

"And you do realize that Mr. Small is only like 40-something, right?"

"Maybe I was thinking of a different story just then."

"Just get on with it already! I'm freezing my paws off."

"Okay, okay, okay! Take it easy, Gumball. I hope the suspense hasn't killed you, otherwise you wouldn't be able to hear the rest of this chilling tale."

"That won't be all he won't get to enjoy!" came a loud, coarse voice from the third floor. The door swung open and an extremely angry looking Miss Simian stood fuming before them.

Gumball glared at Tobias, who could only smile sheepishly.

"I hate you Tobias. I really, really do."


	2. Detention

_243...244...245...246...247...248...zzzz..._

"Gumball!"

Gumball let out a high, girlish squeal. Wiping some of the drool off his face, he took a moment to survey his surroundings, and groaned in frustration upon realizing he was still in detention. Why did he think it would be a good idea to follow Tobias of all people? Why did he care who Janice was? And why did he have to piss off Mr. Small of all people?

Speaking of Mr. Small, he was standing in front of Gumball's desk, arms crossed and wearing a very stern expression that he almost never was seen with. This was not the type of man you wanted to mess with.

"Look, little man, I'm not one to think that this type of punishment is a good thing. My idea of punishment is to ignore the bad, and reward the good," Mr. Small said in a surprisingly relaxed tone while pacing around the room, "But, sadly, the school makes the rules, not me. So for the next hour or so you're my responsibility. You got the picture?"

"Yes, Mr. Small. I'm sorry for falling asleep. It won't happen again, I promise."

His ruler for the next hour gave him a smug grin. For someone who tried to be respectful of kids, Mr. Small usually put out a very pretentious 'I know I'm better than you and smarter than you since I'm older so do what I say' vibe. It was hard to connect to a guy like that, much less actually respect what he had to say.

"Good. Maybe now you'll learn a thing or two about respecting other people's privacy," Mr. Small walked over to Miss Simian's desk and took out a small book and began reading it, looking up every minute or so to make sure Gumball wasn't dozing off again.

With a complete lack of anything to do, Gumball resorted to looking around Miss Simian's classroom. There were the colorful posters on the wall that were probably circa 1975 because of how faded they were, and in addition, the solar system one still had Pluto listed as a planet. Behind Miss Simian's desk was a poster promoting a school play, one that had been performed years ago, but she had apparently never bothered to take it down. Gumball scanned the desks lined up around the room. Many of them had rusty metal parts and wood that was chipped and drawn on. Whenever he so much as shifted his butt a little the desk would make a horrible squeaking noise, so of course Gumball tried to do it as much as possible in Miss Simian's class just to annoy her.

But for now, Gumball's butt was as still as the herbal tea in Mr. Small's cup. All that was present was the soft ticking of the clock on the wall and the sound or Mr. Small drinking his tea or turning a page in his book.

_This is why I never want to go to prison. It's like this every single day, isn't it? Except even more boring. _

Gumball looked around the room some more. His desk was near the front of the class, where Miss Simian had moved him so she could keep a close eye on him. Although Gumball didn't really mind, as this desk was the squeakiest. There was something strange about the room. It was as though something was missing. Or perhaps someone.

Unwilling to unleash the wrath of Mr. Small again, Gumball raised his hand and waited to be called on like a good student. It took a few minutes, and his arm had began to slowly sink down onto the desk like putty while he was waiting, but eventually Mr. Small looked up from his book and noticed him.

"Yes, Gumball?"

"Mr. Small, I was with Tobias when Miss Simian caught us up on the roof. Didn't he get detention too?"

"I don't see why that's any of your business Gumball. The point is that you two were both out of class without a hall pass or permission from your teacher. And you had both wandered off and gotten yourselves stuck on the roof of all places."

"Well, we weren't really stuck. Tobias was just taking me somewhere so he could tell me about... something." Gumball slowly began to realize who he was talking to. Mr. Small's reaction was just as he had pictured it. He raised an eyebrow and placed his book on the desk.

"Okay, you do realize you're going to have to tell me what he was going to tell you right?"

Gumball only nodded. He searched the deepest crevices of his mind, trying as hard as he could to come up with a good lie.

"You do realize I have a master's degree in psychology, right? I can tell by your body language that you're definitely about to tell a lie."

_Ugh! How is he so good? I've royally screwed up now. _

Mr. Small slowly rose up from his seat and walked over to Gumball's desk. As was habitual for him, he took a seat on a desk that was right next to Gumball's and crossed his legs.

The amount of fear felt by Gumball at that moment was nearly indescribable. It was second only to his mother's disapproving stare. He was so close to his face that he could see a few details that were usually unnoticeable, such as the slight hint of purple bags under his eyes, a sure sign that Mr. Small didn't always have an easy time sleeping.

_Wonder what's been keeping him awake?_

It seemed the more his counselor stared at him, the more he felt disturbed by his presence, but not because of his blatant disregard for personal space. It was because as he looked into his green and red eyes, he sensed pain. Despite seeming happy-go-lucky on the inside, Gumball was still sentient. He wasn't immune to pain. He had been driven to tears by his classmates as they bullied him for pretending to be a karate master. Most things he tried, he failed at them, and he wasn't really sure why. Maybe that was his father's side coming through.

Still, despite how much he didn't particularly like Mr. Small, he also did not like the idea of anyone suffering. In a situation like this, Darwin would show kindness. His father would be supportive, despite not being the brightest marshmallow Peep in the candy box. His mother would show strength, 'We can get through this together, you just have to be strong.' His sister would offer moral support. No one in the family knew how to manipulate better than her, her knowledge of emotions was both impressive and scary. What would he himself do?

"Um, Mr. Small?"

"Yes Gumball?"

"I know you don't really like me or anything, because of all the dumb things I've done to you over the years."

"I've never said that. I don't dislike you, I just feel disappointed in you because your mother was so different from you. Almost the exact opposite when she was your age."

That really hurt for some reason. Did his father's side of the family really mess him up that badly?

"N-no Mr. Small, I wanted to ask if there's anything I could do to help."

Mr. Small was a obviously taken aback by this. Probably expecting another snarky remark.

"What kind of help did you have in mind, Gumball?"

"Anything I can do, I feel kind of bad about how I acted yesterday. You look like you need a break. I kinda just wanna make it up to you, and I wanna say that I'm sorry."

To his surprise, Mr. Small started to smile. "I accept your apology little man. I know these years can be tough, believe me," he ruffled his hair a little, which Gumball wasn't too fond of, but he let him do it anyway. "I can't think of much that would help me personally. But I bet Miss Simian would appreciate it if you swept up her classroom for her. Heck, she might even be a bit nice to you for a change."

The two of them laughed at this, as the both of them knew that it was scientifically impossible for Miss Simian to be kind to any living being that wasn't her precious Nigel or herself. Gumball hopped out of his seat and got the broom and dustpan out of the closet in the back. Mr. Small went back to his desk, this time leaning back in his chair with his legs off the ground so Gumball could more easily sweep under them.

In a very short span of time, he was done sweeping up the classroom. While standing back to admire his hard work, he noticed that he still had about thirty minutes left in detention. Although somehow, he no longer felt like a prisoner. He felt like a valued employee.

"Hey, great job little man! This floor is so clean I can practically see myself. I'm actually starting to feel good about Principal Brown having to go to jury duty and Miss Simian just not wanting to see your face."

"Eh, you know what they say Mr. Small."

"What's that?"

"Too much of a good thing, isn't a good thing."

Mr. Small seemed to find this really amusing, "Ahh, that was a good one. Not sure if that's how the saying goes, but creativity is a good skill to have in today's crazy repressive world."

"Thanks, Mr. Small. Anything else I can do before my sentence has been served?"

"Ohh... let me think," he said, swinging from side to side, "Oh! I guess you could try reorganizing those books back there on that shelf. I think those have all been in a jumbled pile since like, the seventies."

"Yes sir!" Gumball dashed to the back of the room and began to sift through the dusty old dictionaries and encyclopedias. He didn't find this job as stimulating as sweeping had been, because while that required a bit of physical dexterity, all this entailed was looking in the backs of old, dusty books and putting them in order based on series or publication.

On the off chance that he decided to actually take a closer look at any of the books, they all had one thing in common. The back page was always signed "Miss Lucy Simian" in the most girly, frilly handwriting Gumball had ever seen. It was enough to make him want to gag, but the fact that Miss Simian had signed all her books like this was also extremely funny. The oldest book he found was an encyclopedia from what was apparently 1790. The text was so old fashioned that it was nearly indecipherable.

_Forget classroom, this junk belongs in a museum..._

Just as he was shelving the last book, Gumball heard the unmistakable sound of a metal object falling on the ground. In a state of confusion, he quickly looked around for a sign of what could have fell, but after feeling around on the floor and finding nothing, he decided to give up.

"Hey, Mr. Small, I finished reshelving those books for - _**YEEOOWW!**_" Gumball immediately jumped up, he had stepped on something sharp and cold, and whatever it was, it was still imbedded in his foot.

"Gumball?! What's the matter?" cried Mr. Small as he rushed over to see what the problem was.

"Ahhhh! I stepped on something and it really, really hurts!" he cried out, tears streaming out of both eyes.

Mr. Small winced as he took Gumball's paw to see what was in it. "Yeah, it's in there pretty deep. I can see how that would really hurt."

"Get it out! Please!" Gumball moaned as loud as he could. Whatever was in his foot was extremely sharp.

"Okay, okay, just hold still, I'll just pull it out." Mr. Small tugged on the small piece of metal as hard as he could, and after struggling for a bit, he finally managed to pull out the mysterious object.

Gumball collapsed onto the floor, but gave a thumbs up to show he was okay. Mr. Small decided to take a closer look at the metal object. Because of a disgusting combination of being hidden away in a dusty bookcase for god knows how long, and covered in Gumball's foot grime as well as a bit of blood, it took a few washes to get the object compeletely clean, but once it was, Mr. Small marveled at the beauty of it.

It was a gorgeous silver ring. Slightly dull in some parts, but what else would be expected of something probably decades old? The sharpness of it was caused by a beautiful, kite-shaped gemstone that shined with a green, ethereal glow. Being a new ager, Mr. Small quickly identified the gem as jade. His heart swelled, as this was a precious stone that he had a special connection with. As a matter of fact, this ring felt strangely familiar...

"Oh yes! Gumball, are you okay? I think your time is up. Do you need a ride home?"

Gumball had gone to a broom closet to get a bandage, and was fixing up his paw just as the clock struck 5:00.

"That's alright, Mr. Small. I can walk," with that, Gumball took one step, and squealed in pain from his injured paw. "Actually, a ride would be nice. Thanks for offering."

"My pleasure, Gumball. This ring you found is quite beautiful."

"Oh yeah, it is pretty nice. Just **do not** drop it. You have not felt true pain unless you step on a sharp ring. Think I might need a tetanus shot."

Mr. Small wasn't sure if he should laugh at that comment or not, so he just shook his head and smiled.

"Alright Gumball, I'll take you home. I think I just need to make a quick stop before we go there. Is that okay?"

"A quick stop where?" Gumball asked, understandably nervous about his counselor's suggestion.

"Nowhere fancy, it'll only take a minute. Just Janice's house. Need to return this ring I bought her."


	3. Snowball Watterson

"Mr. Small... It's getting late. Are you sure you remember where she lives?"

"Don't be silly Gumball! It's only 7:12, that's hardly late. Just a bit more driving. I can feel it, this scenery looks so familiar."

Gumball wanted to scream. They had been driving around the exact same area for some time now. The sun was setting, and he was beginning to feel just a little hungry. At the time, he was joking about the tetanus thing, but now, it was starting to hurt quite a bit. He was even starting to feel a bit lightheaded.

Still, he had no choice but to press on. Mr. Small had reassured him numerous times that Janice's house was close to the street he lived on, but he was driving through what looked like the countryside now. Dense forests of leafless trees made the scene even creepier, but Gumball refused to think of any horror movies. He had already had a pretty bad week, and he definitely did not welcome the thought of a masked psychopath with a chainsaw chasing them, or even worse, the thought of Mr. Small being a... psychopath?

_That's ridiculous. Come on, Gumball. He's obviously just very confused right now. Guess now would be as great a time as any to take in the scenery out here. _

"Oh, you don't mind if I put some music on, do you Gumball?"

"Not really."

"Great! I just found this new CD at the local thrift store in their new age department. I've been dying to give it a listen, but it kept on slipping my mind for some silly reason."

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead."

"Thanks, Gumball. You're a pretty cool little dude."

Gumball said nothing. What mutual trust and respect they had built up between each other was slowly vanishing, and being replaced by fear. No matter how much he tried to rationalize the situation at hand, the general creepiness of it wouldn't quit bugging him.

The car was filled with the soothing sounds of a flute mixed with a steady synthesizer beat in the background. Mr. Small apparently thought nothing of it, as he was used to this type of music, but to Gumball, it was like nothing he had ever heard before. It was putting him in a different state, almost like a trance.

Or was he just slowly falling asleep? His eyelids grew heavier and heavier with each passing track, and as he started to nod off, he caught a glimpse of the car's clock. 8:50... I'm so... dead...

Gumball glanced at the clock again.

_Huh? How is it still 8:50? I guess his clock is... oh._

Gumball was awakened by the sound of happily chirping birds flittering about their nests. They were the nice type of bird that liked to stay during the winter months. A big, plump red cardinal flew over towards Gumball's window, but pulled back and flew away once he realized there was someone in it. There was something about birds that made Gumball really hungry, like some primal animal hunger that just made his normal, domesticated hunger even more intense.

Had he really been in this car all night? The motor had stopped running, and the hypnotizing new age music was mercifully shut off. Mr. Small was still asleep in the driver's seat, head hanging lazily to one side.

For a moment, Gumball considered waking him up and demanding to be taken home right now. He didn't even want to think about how his mom would react to all this, even though it technically wasn't his fault that he had hurt his paw by stepping on the ring, and it also technically wasn't his fault that Mr. Small had dragged him along with him to take a crazy road trip to go see some ex from who knows how many years ago.

But something about the situation was off. Even more off than it had been before. Gumball felt as if he was in actual danger right now. He now made it his personal mission to not wake up Mr. Small no matter what, but, for some odd reason, he decided that it was important to get the ring off of his finger. Despite the excruciating pain it had caused his right paw, it was a very lovely ring. He was sure that Penny would appreciate a ring of such class and beauty.

_I'm doing this for you Penny. If I make it out of here alive, that is._

Gumball had a bit of experience with being quiet and careful due to the difficulty posed by going about the house at night to sneak in a quick snack with his father around. The shifting of even the smallest crumb would inevitably wake him somehow, and send him flying down the stairs to put Gumball back to bed and eat all the cookies that Nicole had hidden by himself. How different could this be?

Trying to keep his quivering hand as steady as possible, Gumball took Mr. Small's arm and held it up, then extended his ring finger. Grasping the ring as carefully as he could, Gumball slid it off of Mr. Small's skinny finger.

_Ha! That was too easy!_

He then released Mr. Small's arm in victory, which then landed on directly on the horn.

_**HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONKKKKK.**_

Gumball's heart nearly stopped. The moment he opened his eyes again, he fully expected Mr. Small to have been awakened by that dreadfully loud sound, but to his surprise, he was still sound asleep. Gumball smiled with relief, and took this moment to take some deep breaths and try to make sure he was living again. He was getting far too lucky this early in the game.

Gumball slid the silver and green ring onto his ring finger. It really was a lovely creation, it looked to be suitable for the noblest emperors and empresses in distant Asian empires.

Since waking Mr. Small was not an option at this point, Gumball decided that the best course of action would be to seek help in any way that he could. Of course, they were on a gravel road in the middle of what looked to be the countryside, and nothing anywhere looked remotely familiar, but as long as he told himself to not give up, he felt that he would survive this experience somehow.

Gumball slowly opened the car door, trying as hard as he could not to make any noise. Putting his normal paw on the ground first, he then softly put his injured paw on the rough gravel. The sharp pain that the ring had caused him came back in nearly full force. Gumball had to suck in air to keep himself from howling with pain. Wobbling slightly, Gumball attempted to close the car door.

As luck would have it though, a huge, hairy spider crawled right through his feet as he was closing the door. Overwhelmed with sheer terror, Gumball screamed as loud as he could and fell backwards onto the gravel, groaning with pain.

Gumball looked up, and his worst fears were fully realized. Mr. Small was moving again, and it looked like he was about to get up. Desperate to get away from him, Gumball scampered into the bushes whilst doing the crab walk, that stupid little backwards run they had taught him in gym class. Guess it actually had some value in the real world after all.

"Gumball? Are you awake?" Mr. Small stretched out his hand, and felt nothing but bare upholstery beside him.

"_**Gumball?!**_ Gumball, where are you?" Silence was his only answer. Mr. Small swore out loud and went over to shut the passenger side door. He then turned the ignition and the car sped out of sight, careening forward into the deep, dark woods.

_I'm alone now. _

Somehow, he was starting to regret forcing Mr. Small to leave. Gumball was rarely alone. He usually had Darwin to look to for companionship when the times were rough, but now, he had no one at all, except the birds and himself.

Even worse, he would have to walk all the way to a road with his injured paw. So if he encountered a predator like a bear or a cougar, he couldn't even outrun it because of his limp. If only the Watterson family had enough money to buy shoes.

_Wait a minute! My family! They must be worried sick, I'll bet they've got search parties and everything after me. _

Of course, Gumball had no idea where he was. He saw no signs of civilization around him, only a gravel path drawn in the grass of a clearing.

In this situation, there was only one clear solution. Making it point to travel in the opposite direction that Mr. Small had gone, Gumball began to limp towards a road, or a town, or anything really.

_Thank goodness for my winter coat and boots, _he thought, counting his blessings, _if it wasn't for them, I would be freezing to death right now._

It was bitterly cold, but not cold enough for snow to stick. It was the dreary, sickly winter that no one liked. Where everyone got the stomach bug and you couldn't play outside for fear of slipping on ice or getting frostbite. The kind of winter that made you long for summer even more than you yearned for winter during the hot, hot summer.

Summer. Now there was a comforting thought. No better way to stay warm than to think about summer. To think about your sacred two month vacation.

_There really is no greater joy in life than summer vacation. _

As Gumball's step began to weaken, the thought of him and his brother sharing ice cream on their front porch grew so much sweeter. He thought of playing board games with his family, and losing horribly every single time. He thought of playing out in the yard with his friends, how nice and natural the sun's hot rays felt on their skin. It was the meaning of life.

Gumball's breathing was starting to shorten slightly. He was unsure of how much he had been walking, but since the woods that Mr. Small had sped off into were now out of sight, he assumed that he had gone a few miles.

_Hey, for a cat with a beat up toe that's not too shabby._

His ears perked up. That sound, it was a sound so familiar... and yet so very far away. The faster he limped towards the noises, the more familiar they became. Could they be? The sounds of engines? He wasn't quite sure. They could be the sound of a chainsaw revving. In the state he was in, he couldn't really tell.

In fact, it could have been his breathing for all he knew. It was growing raspier by the minute. The cold, dry air was beginning to get to him. He would have to stop and rest for a minute or so if he didn't want to collapse from exhaustion.

He steered himself towards what looked like the porch of a house, or at least, what was once a house. The sounds of traffic had become much clearer, so he was definitely close to civilization now. Just a few minutes of rest, and he'd be up and running again in no time.

Without even glancing at the house itself, Gumball sat himself down on the porch steps and took a few deep breaths while trying to calm down his injured paw.

_This may be the one time in my life that I can say 'thank god for abandoned houses'. I really should have checked to see if Mr. Small had anything to drink in his car. I'm so thirsty..._

After he had regained a bit of his strength, Gumball got up and staggered off the steps. Out of curiousity, he glanced up at the little house to see what the rest of it looked like. He could not have been more horrified.

The house had evidently burnt to the ground many years ago. The charred pieces of wood were now gray, and appeared to be covered by a thick layer of ash. The only distinguishable part of the house that remained was an old fashioned chimney, but it was still falling apart.

The implications of a burnt down old house in the woods were nothing short of terrifying. Even the sight of it was beginning to make him feel ill. He quickly decided that the best course of action would be to hobble away from the house as fast as possible.

With a final glance, Gumball rounded a corner, and the mutilated house was out of his sight for good.

_Okay, maybe I shouldn't have hobbled that fast..._

Gumball's head was swimming. The cold air seemed to be choking him from the inside. Breathing was becoming a very difficult task, and his heart felt frozen. His mind was fading away, as were his surroundings. He dizzily crashed to the ground with a painful thud. The final things he heard were a bird calling and a familiar female voice yelling.


	4. The Yearbook

Gumball's head was swimming. He was unsure about where he was, but he knew for certain that he wasn't outside in the freezing cold anymore. The room was warm and comforting, and he was bundled up tightly in a blanket.

He slowly opened his eyes, and a familiar sight came into being - his bedroom. For some reason, the pain in his foot had grown substantially. He couldn't even move it. His breathing was still a bit chilled, but it didn't hurt to do it anymore at least.

Gumball looked around the room for a sign that Darwin was around, but he couldn't see a trace of him anywhere. Growing a bit sore from laying in bed, Gumball threw the blanket off of him and carefully walked downstairs. It took nearly twice the amount of time as it usually did, and with every step he took his injured paw screamed in pain.

As he reached the bottom step, his mother rushed into the living room from the kitchen. She bent down and hugged him as tight as she could and kissed his head. Gumball could tell she was crying.

"Gumball, please don't ever go missing again sweetie. We were all so worried about you."

"I'm fine now mom, but there's something I'd like to ask you."

"Can it wait until after dinner? I'm nearly finished making it."

Gumball glanced at the clock, it was 6:30. He had been knocked out almost all day. His stomach growled loudly, and he caught the lovely smell of dinner cooking. Yesterday Mr. Small had driven him out so far that he had missed his own dinner, and the next day's breakfast and lunch. He was starving.

_And it wasn't a dream._

Nicole released him, and gave him one last kiss on the forehead. "Well, you can go ahead and rest up on the couch. I'll let everyone else know you're awake."

Gumball nodded and climbed up on the couch. Anxiety was beginning to wash over him. If it truly wasn't a dream, then Mr. Small was probably still looking for him. How would he react to not finding a trace of him anywhere? Was he still searching? What would happen if they ran into each other? Would he be mad at him?

_Oh yeah. He definitely would._

Gumball looked at his hand, and noticed that the green and silver jade ring was still on it. Maybe taking it wasn't such a great idea after all.

He put the thought of a psychotic Mr. Small out of his head as best he could, and decided to focus on the situation at hand. Just then, the stairs began to squeak loudly as the rest of his family descended them.

"Gumball, thank goodness! We thought you were gone forever," Anais, Gumball's little sister, jumped up and gave him a big hug with tears in her little eyes.

"I thought you usually walked home after detention. What happened, dude?" Darwin asked.

"Well, I had a little accident during it. Stepped on a really sharp ring and hurt myself pretty bad."

"The one right there on your finger?" Anais asked, pointing to the glistening ring.

"Yeah. It's really kind of a long story."

Anais got up on the couch and sat next to her brother. "Well, that's what we've been waiting for."

"Come on, Gumball. You've got a lot of explaining to do. I'm not going to be angry at you, unless I have a reason to be. Give us the full story," his mother said comfortingly as she petted his head.

Gumball sighed inwardly. He didn't really want to tell them everything that happened. In fact, if he could just forget about the whole experience, he would be satisfied. But, there he was, sitting on the couch with a hurt paw and a ring on his finger. He knew he couldn't hide the truth from them much longer.

It took about an hour to fully explain everything that had happened. About halfway through the story, Nicole went ahead and fetched their dinner, and they ate together in the living room while listening to Gumball speak.

As he told the story, Gumball could sense by Nicole's facial expressions that she was not very pleased, to say the least. The rest of his family appeared to be understandably shocked.

"And that's when you found me. I guess I fainted from exhaustion or something, and then I think I heard mom's voice."

"Gumball," Nicole said, her face red and her voice shaky, "I want you to report this to Principal Brown on Monday. We'll call the police. This is _**unacceptable!**_" As she shouted, Nicole kicked a vase off of the living room table to let out her rage, and she walked off towards the phone, while muttering to herself, "I always knew that man was trouble. I _knew _it. He shouldn't be allowed to be near a school!"

Richard spoke up, his voice slightly quivering as well. "Um, Gumball? What did you say about a burnt down house?"

"I was just walking down the road and I came across an old house that looked like it had burned down years ago. It gave me the creeps."

"Well, um, I was just asking because when your mother and I were in school, a classmate of ours had a housefire."

Gumball's eyes widened, "You did? What was her name?"

"I can't really remember," Richard admitted, "It was so long ago."

Nicole hung up the reciever with a loud click. "Okay, I've notified the authorities about what happened. They said they're going out to scope the area where we found you as we speak. Darwin, Anais, can you two go get ready for bed? Your father and I would like to have a private conversation with Gumball."

They both nodded, and raced up the stairs just as their mother asked them. Nicole got down and sat next to her son on the couch, while Richard remained sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Gumball, please don't be alarmed by this, but your father and I have been piecing together your story the moment you mentioned the burnt down house. I'm not sure how well you're going to take this news."

"What news, mom?"

Nicole looked away and took a deep breath. She was obviously unsure about telling her son the truth.

"What your mother is trying to say is, your counselor might not be as nice of a person as you thought."

Gumball scoffed, "Come on dad, he practically kidnapped me last night. It would be kind of hard to like someone after that."

"We know, dear. We're going to do all we can to make sure he doesn't get off scott free for what he did," Nicole reassured her son. "Did Mr. Small mention any names? Did he tell you whose house he was looking for?"

"He did, actually," Gumball confessed, "When I stepped on the ring, he took it out and got super interested in it. He said he was going to make a stop at someone's house to return it. The day before, a kid told me the name."

"What was it Gumball?" Richard pressed.

"It was Janice."

Nicole and Richard both gasped. Their faces grew as pale as ghosts.

"What? Did you know her?"

"We did, we knew her in high school. She was Steve Small's girlfriend for as long as we could remember. Then, one day, we heard that her house had burnt to the ground. They never found her, or her family. They were all just, gone."

Richard nodded in agreement. Obviously his parents both knew something he didn't. Nicole got up from the couch and walked upstairs, coming back down shortly after with book in her hands. The cover said, "Elmore High School Yearbook - Class of 1980".

"There should be a memorial page of her in here somewhere," Nicole said, flipping the pages of the old yearbook.

"Ah, here we go. Look Gumball."

She handed him the book. It was open to a page near the end. The heading at the top read, "Janice Marie Edwards 1962 - 1980".

"She died?" Gumball asked, feeling a deep sense of fear.

"Yes. Keep reading, Gumball."

He observed a beautiful portrait of a young woman who appeared to be in her late teens. She was wearing a purple headband, and had green, leafy looking hair along with yellow skin. Her expression was slightly fearful, and her smile was obviously a fake. A lengthy paragraph was written underneath the portrait.

"The City of Elmore would like to pay tribute to a very special young woman who was taken from us this year. Janice Edwards, president of the poetry club and an inspiration to the entire student body, passed away in a mysterious housefire. This book is dedicated to her memory. May she rest in peace."

Gumball was compeletely speechless. He had never been this shocked in his young life. Why was Mr. Small going to see someone who was dead? Who had died years ago? There was no way he couldn't have known, she was his girlfriend after all.

"Mom? Do you have any idea why she looks so... scared in this picture?"

"I think so. Near the end of the year, I remember her and Steve getting into a lot of arguments about something. I wasn't very close to her, so what those arguments were about, I have no idea."

"Um, Nicole. I think I might know."

"Yes Richard?"

"Steve was my friend back in those days. I knew him pretty well. Most of our senior year, he seemed to be really angry about something. He always complained to me about how Janice wanted to leave him. He said she was afraid of him."

Gumball rolled his eyes, "Can't say I blame her, really."

"At the end of the year, I'm pretty sure he was losing his mind over her. A few days before the fire, he had told me that they were breaking up. Then we heard the intercom come on one morning after and give us the bad news."

Richard and Nicole looked at each other, faces full of terror. Unwilling to believe what was painfully obvious.

"I think I'm going to go get ready for bed, Nicole. Goodnight Gumball." Richard got up and kissed his wife and son, before climbing up the stairs to his room.

"Gumball... I want you to know that nothing that happened was your fault at all. Mr. Small is just a very disturbed man. I'll do everything in my power to see that he gets what he deserves for what he did."

Gumball nodded slowly, his mind buzzing with questions. Speaking to her was out of the question, as he was barely breathing at the moment.

"I'll carry you to bed dear. I'm sorry about everything that happened. I love you Gumball."

"I love you too, mom," He whispered, as he silently began to cry into his mother's shoulder.

While he was lying in bed, Gumball took the ring off, and threw it out the window as hard as he could.


End file.
